Edward Hibberd Johnson invented electric Christmas lights in 1882, building on Thomas Edison’s incandescent light bulb.
Johnson, Edison’s friend and business partner, hand-wired 80 red, white, and blue bulbs around a revolving Christmas tree in his New York City parlor.
In 1903, General Electric introduced the first pre-assembled Christmas light kits, although they remained quite costly at the time.
In 1917, Albert Sadacca popularized affordable, colorful light strands after a fire, later co-founding the holiday lighting giant NOMA.
During the Christmas season of 1880, Edison showcased the very first strand of electric lights, stringing them around the outside of his Menlo Park laboratory.
Railroad passengers passing by enjoyed their first glimpse of an electrical light display. However, it took almost forty years for electric Christmas lights to gain widespread popularity.
Before electric lights, families lit Christmas trees with candles—a practice fraught with danger, often leading to home fires.
The first string of electric Christmas lights
Edward H. Johnson assembled the first string of electric Christmas tree lights in 1882. He carefully wired 80 red, white, and blue bulbs around his Christmas tree, which also revolved, showcasing the marvel of electricity.
Yet, society hesitated to embrace electric illumination. Many feared electricity, leading to a slow adoption of electric lights for Christmas.
Some credit President Grover Cleveland with helping to popularize indoor electric Christmas lights. In 1895, he requested that the White House Christmas tree be adorned with hundreds of multi-colored electric bulbs.
On Christmas Eve in 1923, President Calvin Coolidge initiated the country’s Christmas celebration by lighting the National Christmas Tree with 3,000 electric lights at the Ellipse, south of the White House.
Before General Electric’s pre-assembled kits became available in 1903, string lights were largely a luxury for the wealthy and those knowledgeable about electricity.
Setting up electric lights for an average Christmas tree prior to 1903 would have cost approximately $2,000 today.
Potential marketing
While Thomas Edison and Edward H. Johnson were the pioneers of electric light strands, it was Albert Sadacca who saw the potential market for them.
In 1917, as a teenager, he proposed that his family’s novelty lighting company offer colorful Christmas light strands.
By the 1920s, Albert and his brothers founded the National Outfit Manufacturers Association (NOMA), which later evolved into NOMA Electric Co. and dominated the Christmas light market until the 1960s.
Although companies moved mass-market Christmas light manufacturing overseas in the late 1960s to late 1970s as competition increased, manufacturers now produce all modern Christmas light strings (LEDs, mini-lights, C7/C9 bulbs) overseas, primarily in countries like China, Cambodia, and Vietnam.
While importers bring in entire light strands, some specific niche replacement items—such as vintage bubble light replacement parts—still assemble or make domestically, like those from Christmas by Carlisle in Raleigh, North Carolina.
Today, we eagerly anticipate the holiday season filled with electric strands of light. The variety available now is remarkable, and we can thank Thomas Edison, Edward H. Johnson, and Albert Sadacca for brightening our celebrations.